Interview with the Spear Sisters – part 2

Our festival programmer Rob van den Bergh held an interview with Sam and Kailey Spear, better known as the Spear Sisters, filmmakers of the short film CC. Read the second part of the interview here! Their film CC is part of the short film program Artificial Identities. This program starts at 17:30 tomorrow in LUX 2. Tickets are available here.

How is it to work on films as sisters, as twins even? How do you divide various tasks and make decisions?

Working together is a pretty fluid process. We don’t have specific jobs that we assign to each of us. Rather, we will float back and forth between covering different pieces of what needs to be done. We will talk about what we want to do with the script, the ideas for the characters, plot, tone, etc, and then go off and write scenes separately. We will keep on sending the script back and forth, writing new material and revising the pieces we have received from the other.. When we come the time where we have a script that we are both happy reading all the way through without feeling any bumps or irks, then we will know it is good to go.

It is similar for directing. We float back and forth between being in different places; one behind the monitor, one closer to the actors. One giving notes to the actors, one giving notes to camera. If we see an adjustment that could be made, there are many times where we don’t have to talk to each other about it, we just give each other a look to see which one of us is going to go and deliver the adjustment.

We are lucky that we always have a unified idea of where we want to go with the project. We bring different ideas of to how to achieve our vision to the table but we both will hold that same end vision in our mind. We have always been good at talking through the options brought by both of us and determining which direction is best for the project.

You are working on a next project. What can you tell us about that now?

Yes! We are working on something quite fun right now. The 40th anniversary of the 1979 “ALIEN” film is coming up. To celebrate 20th Century Fox and Tongal have teamed up to bring six original short films set in the “ALIEN” universe to screen. We are making one of those short films! It is called “ALIEN: ORE”. At this point, details about the shorts are being kept under wraps, but definitely keep your eyes open for news!

Finally, what does science mean to you?

Great question. For us, science means unlocking the secrets to magic of this universe. Then learning to use it.